Category: Military

Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?

No Comments

Clearances for Felons?

SSCI Warns Against Clearances for Ex-Convicts.
The Senate Select Committee on Intelligence endorsed a statutory prohibition that prevents the Department of Defense from granting security clearances to former convicts who have served a year or more in jail, individuals who are mentally incompetent, are drug addicts, or have been dishonorably discharged from the military.

The Pentagon had requested a repeal of that provision, first enacted in 2000, and the request was approved by the Senate Armed Services Committee.

“The [Intelligence] Committee understands DoD’s desire to have more flexibility to give clearances to otherwise qualified individuals who are currently barred from receiving or renewing their security clearances.”
…

They are so short on people that they want to clear felons?

But still, they are engaging in anti-gay witchunts.

Welcome to our broken military.

You Have to Destroy Army You Have, Not the Army You Want.

No Comments

It appears that the US Army has missed its monthly goal by 15%.

It should be noted that the army has consistently backpedaled on these goals, in order not to make the shortfalls sound too bad too.

It got only 5/6 of the men it needs, and people are leaving the Army, Guard and Reserves as fast as they can.

Then you have the people who are staying only because they don’t want to leave their buddies while combat continues in Iraq.

Do I feel a draft in here?

AIM-9X Is Not All It’s Cracked up To Be

No Comments

Physics says that the AIM-9X will have inferior kinematics (speed and range) and a smaller warhead than its competitor.

The AIM-9 is a 125mm (5″) diameter missile, while its competitors, the ASRAAM, Python 5, IRIS-T (I think), R-73 (AA-11), MICA, are all 150 mm+ (6+ inches), giving more than 40% internal volume.

This means more fuel and a larger warhead.

Additionally, when compared to the other thrust vectoring missiles, which have new motors which provide less thrust during the early thrust vectoring stages, and hence less thrust vectoring losses, the motor is less efficient.

There is also the argument that with an agile airframe, and a seeker that has a wide scan angle, you can get the same effects, which is what the Python 5’s game, and/or using the capability of locking on after launch (ASRAAM largely operates in this mode) to achieve similar targeting, because all these missiles require that the platform pass pretty detailed information on the target, typically with a helmet mounted sight, to the missile in order to engage off boresight targets.

None of the larger missiles even fit in the F-22 side bays for IR missiles, and once one is in a visual encounter, the F-22 has lost a its advantages of stealth and super cruise, so the USAF probably sees this as a weapon of last resort (the cannon is more for that random enemy truck convoy that happens by).

That being said, this is a neat video.

The Money Is In Batteries

No Comments

Seriously, the expansion of batteries, whether in hybrids, military, laptops, etc. makes this an area where the rewards, and the potential for investors is nearly unlimited.

DOD officials offer $1 million prize for wearable power innovations
by Donna Miles
American Forces Press Service

7/5/2007 – WASHINGTON (AFPN) — A typical dismounted troop going out for a four-day mission carries as much as 40 pounds of batteries and rechargers in his pack. Defense Department officials want to reduce that load significantly, and they’re dangling a $1 million carrot to entice people to help them do it.

They launched their “wearable power” prize competition July 5 to come up with new innovations to lighten warfighters’ loads.

The goal, explained William Rees, deputy undersecretary of laboratories and basic sciences, is to reduce the weight for the power system that drives radios, night-vision devices, global positioning systems and other combat gear, including a recharging system, to about 2 pounds per day.

“The mantra is four days, 4 kilograms,” he said.

…

Military Times Says Army “Nearing a Breaking Point”

No Comments

They are deploying troops for a year. In WWII, they determined that soldiers needed relief after 180 days.

When this is over, we will have many broken men, and recruiting problems for a generation.

Editorial: Balance home, away time

Many soldiers have deployed three, four and more times to Iraq, Afghanistan or both. But you won’t hear much in the way of complaints, because a shared sense of honor and duty overrides most self-interest.

Yet there is no escaping the fact that the Army is nearing a breaking point.

In the fifth year of war in Iraq, when deployments should be winding down, combat tours instead are being extended.

Time between deployments, meanwhile, is unchanged. So today, soldiers can look forward to 15 months in the war zone for every 12 months at home.

Fifteen-month deployments mean some soldiers can expect to miss two Christmases, two anniversaries, and two of the same child’s birthdays in one war tour. It means more mental health problems for soldiers, more stress on families and less support for the mission at home.

This is bad policy.

Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., plans to introduce legislation to mandate that deployed troops get a month at home for every month deployed. So if a deployment does have to last 15 months, soldiers wouldn’t have to go back for another 15 months.

…

Russia To Locate Missiles In Baltic Coast In Response to US Missile Defense Plans

No Comments

Let’s see. We locate a “Missile Shield” against Iran somewhere that leaves much of NATO naked, but is along the Russian border, and we are surprised when they get huffy?

This is Condi Rice trying to recreate the “Evil Empire” because her profession has vanished with its fall.

Someone should tell her that Diplomat means more than, “An extremely unwise thing to call Guido “Knuckles” Lomat“.

FWIW, missiles fired from Kaliningrad could take a depressed trajectory, and strike NATO targets with little or no warning, and said “missile shield”, which is exclusively exo-atmospheric, won’t be able to touch it.

Russia threatens European rocket deployment
MOSCOW (AFP): Russia issued a veiled threat on Wednesday to deploy rockets in its Kaliningrad region bordering the European Union if the United States built a missile defence shield in central Europe.

Moscow and Washington are locked in a standoff over the US plans for a radar station in the Czech Republic and interceptor rockets in Poland.

Russia says the plans threaten its security.

The threat to put missiles in Kaliningrad was made by the influential First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov only two days after President Vladimir Putin again raised the missile shield dispute with US President George W. Bush.

Putin has suggested to Bush that the United States use a Russian-controlled radar in ex-Soviet Azerbaijan, near the Iranian border, instead of having a shield in central Europe.

Putin has also offered the use of another radar under construction at Armavir in southern Russia.

“If our offers are accepted, Russia will not consider it necessary to deploy new rocket units in the European part of the country, including Kaliningrad, to counter the threat” from the United States, Ivanov was quoted as saying by Russian news agencies.

Ivanov, who was on a visit to Uzbekistan, said Russia had “found an asymmetrical and effective response” to the US project for a European shield.

“We know what we’re doing…. If our proposals are not accepted, we will take adequate measures,” Ivanov said.

Washington insists that its proposed missile shield is intended to guard against possible attack from “rogue states” such as Iran. Moscow believes the systems are directed against Russia.

…

They believe that it is targeted against Russia because it is targeted against Russia.

India Has Beaten the USA at It’s Own Game, F#$%ed Up Weapons Procurement.

No Comments

If you think that US defense procurement programs have a problem, you will get a chuckle out of the Indian Arjun MBT.

Indian Army to get 14 Arjun tanks for field trials

The Indian Army has agreed to take 14 indigenously developed main battle tanks (MBT) Arjun for field trials by September 30, it was announced on Monday.

The decision was taken after successful demonstration of all modifications including medium fording or crossing a water body to Defence Minister AK Antony and other senior officials at Avadi in Tamil Nadu where the tank is being built, a defence ministry statement said.

…

While not officially going on record, the army is known to be extremely unhappy with the Arjun, having listed 14 defects that need to be rectified.

These include a deficient fire control system, inaccuracy of its guns, low speeds in tactical areas – principally deserts – and its inability to operate in temperatures over 50 degrees celsius.

…

50°C is about 112°F. It’s a temperature that was seen in France during their killer heat wave.

And it appears that this saga will continue.

The Indian Army laid down its qualitative requirement (QR) for the Arjun in 1972. In 1982, the DRDO had announced that the prototype was ready for field trials. However, the tank was publicly unveiled only in 1995.

Arjun was originally meant to be a 40-tonne tank with a 105 mm gun. It has now grown to a 50-tonne vehicle with a 120 mm gun.

Wiki lists it as being a 58.5 tonn vehicle with a crew of 4, so it would be similar to the Leopard II. (It’s about 5 T lighter)

It’s main gun is rifled, which implies some British involvement, as they are only ones staying with rifled main guns.

It uses a hydropneumatic suspension. This probably does not gain much by way of performance, torsion bar seems to match that, but is more efficient space wise, as you don’t have to have a sub floor over the torsion bars, and it can kneel, possibly allowing for very low profile hull down positions.

35 years?????

Huge Indian Fighter Jet Tender Enters Final Stage : Military Aviation : Defense News Air Force Army Navy News

No Comments

The Russians have the cheapest plane of the lot, and transitioning crews and maintenance personnel from MiG to MiG should be easier.

As to the price issues mentioned at the end, I would think that the F-16 would be the next cheapest, but I think that the Gripen would be cheaper than the F-18E/F.

I’ve always been a fan of the Gripen, so that may color this.

Additionally, the US might use export restrictions to attempt to kill a potential Gripen sale.

They tried this is South Africa, when they attempted to use export restrictions to get them to buy a US plane, but the response from South Africa was to forbid any US companies from bidding on Defense contracts, and the US relented.

Huge Indian Fighter Jet Tender Enters Final Stage

A scramble for a piece of the world’s largest fighter plane deal in over a decade moved into its final stage Friday with India examining the final bids from global weapons giants.

Indian defense ministry and industry sources said the choice appeared to have narrowed down to the Russian-built MiG-35 and MiG-29 aircraft, and U.S. offerings the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Boeing F-18.

A top defense procurement committee meeting had been expected to result in an announcement of the vendor of the 126 war planes, but an official statement late on Friday only said the tender has been “fine-tuned.”

The deal is potentially worth $9 billion to $10 billion.

Also in the race to replace a chunk of India’s aging fleet of 700 MiG-21s are Eurofighter’s Typhoon, Saab’s Gripen and Dassault’s Rafale and Mirage — although price considerations have left these contenders at a disadvantage, defense officials and industry sources said.

….

Aire Force Jumps on Next Gravy Train

No Comments

The problem here is that the USAF has never done well supporting troops on the ground, and this is best folded unto US Army operations.

This is really about the USAF trying to make sure that it’s on the gravy train as the US military is redefined for likely conflicts, counter-insurgency (COINS), where the latest USAF whiz bang gets you no advantage.

The F-22, F-35, new tankers, bombers, etc. have NO additional utility relative to legacy systems in COINS.

US Air Force planners want irreguar warfare wing
By Stephen Trimble

US Air Force Special Operations Command (AFSOC) planners have called for the stand-up of a new “irregular warfare” wing dedicated to fighting insurgents and terrorists with an aircraft fleet numbering 44 airlifters, 20 helicopters and 20 turboprop strike fighters.

….

The irregular warfare wing concept seeks to introduce the first dedicated strike aircraft for fighting insurgent forces since the Douglas A-1 Skyraider in the Vietnam war.

“One possible candidate for the light strike role is the air-to-ground modified [Beechcraft] AT-6B. Other candidate aircraft include the [Embraer] Tucano or Super Tucano,” the AFSOC paper states. The authors add that a Cessna Caravan “might be useful as a light mobility, strike, or intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft depending on its configuration”.

Perhaps more important than the light strike component, the new wing should operate four Lockheed Martin C-130s in a “heavy mobility” role, as well as 20 medium lift and 20 light mobility aircraft. The latter can be comprised of Cessnas or EADS Casa C-212s, while the former might be the Alenia Aeronautica C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft.

I Used to Work On This

No Comments

When I was at Lockheed in Grand Prairie, I worked on VT-1. the missile in the what was then called the Crotale NG (it’s apparrently now called the Crotale III).

Thales Unveils New-Generation Surface Radar (Subscription Required)

….

•A longer range version of the Crotale very-short-range missile system. Designated the Mk. 3, the system will have a range of 15 km. and 9,000 meters altitude—a 50% increase over the existing missile. Combined with Shikra in a ground-based air defense network, the Mk. 3 can detect targets at a range of 108 km., including UAVs and cruise missiles 30-40 km. away—twice the performance of competing radars—Thales engineers say. Its VT1 hypervelocity missile will enable the Mk. 3 to reach targets at 15-km. maximum range within 30 sec.—up to half the time needed for weapons like the Amraam, MICA or Derby converted from air-launched weapons, they say.


The Crotale Mk. 3 will afford a 50% improvement in range and ceiling compared with existing versions of the very-short-range air defense system.

…..

Yep….that’s VT-1. I recognize my old friend.

FWIW, I started work on VT1 in 1996, regarding some issues of contention between the prime contractor (then Thomson CSF, now Thales) and Loral Vought (Became Lockheed Martin Vought Systems, then Lockheed Martin Missiles and fire control).

I would have figured that it would have been finished well before this.

Common Ground for Hunters and Environmentalists

No Comments

Christina Larson, Blogging for Kevin Drum makes a very good point about hunters and other sportsmen.

Specifically, if they are allowed reasonable access in an environmentally friendly way, they are great allies in protecting critical habitats.

I don’t hunt myself. I keep Kosher at home out of respect for my wife, and anything that you would shoot would be treif, and so we could not eat them, but I’ve taken my kids fishing, and only my astonishing ineptitude has prevented us from taking fish home to cook.

Here we have roadless land where hunters can walk in to hunt, and they, who are not what one could call reflexively anti-military, are screaming bloody murder.

Hunting is essential in much of rural PA, because the deer have gotten completely out of hand, because the wolves have been eliminated.

I’d like to see wolves reintroduced, if just because they are more efficient, and tend to go after the old and infirm animals, but for the foreseeable future, hunting is an indispensable part of the ecosystem.

Land Conservationists Take on the National Guard – New York Times

By SEAN D. HAMILL

FORT INDIANTOWN GAP, Pa., June 27 — There are few better vantage points than Hawk Watch to see both sides of the debate between the Pennsylvania National Guard and local conservationists.

Hawk Watch, a 30-yard-wide clearing named for its grand view of soaring raptors, is on the ridge of Second Mountain, about 12 miles northeast of Harrisburg and part of the Appalachian range.

“This is Stony Creek Valley,” said Larry Herr, pointing north to 44,000 acres of state-protected wilderness that is home to a nearly unaltered green carpet of hemlock, maple and oak trees going down the hillside to the valley 1,000 feet below.

Then, walking to the other side of Hawk Watch and looking south onto a 17,000-acre base operated by the Pennsylvania National Guard, Mr. Herr said with contempt: “And this is the Gap. Notice the difference.”

Amid large swaths of a similar tree canopy are pockets where the valley and hillside have been carved up for guard training areas, the trees removed and roads, buildings and ranges put in their place.

“That’s why we don’t want them over here,” said Mr. Herr, 67, a hunter who is part of the Stony Creek Valley Coalition fighting the guard’s request to use about 900 acres as a buffer for a new target range for Abrams M-1 tanks and Bradley fighting vehicles. “We don’t trust them.”

In a series of public meetings, charges have flown back and forth about a lack of concern for the public and past environmental abuses by the Guard — charges the Guard denies — and accusations that sportsmen regularly trespass on Guard land.

……

Emphasis mine.

Starting World War III By Mistake

No Comments

Let’s see the problems here:

  • This makes a conventional attack indistinguishable from a nuclear one, increasing the possibility of a nuclear response.

  • It makes arms control agreements next to impossible to enforce, though that might be the goal of Bush and his evil minions™, they have always opposed arms control agreements.

Navy, Air Force Explore Conventional Strike Options (Subscription Required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/02/2007, page 32

Amy Butler
Los Angeles and Sunnyvale, Calif.

The Pentagon is looking for non-nuclear strike options, prompting new demos

Printed headline: Hardly Conventional

The U.S. Air Force and Navy are preparing different approaches to solving a gap in the nation’s ability to deliver a conventional payload to strike any target on the globe within one hour of a go-ahead.

The Navy is looking to its Trident II D5 submarine-launched missile, while the Air Force is considering a land-based design using decommissioned Peacekeeper and Minuteman rocket motors on a Minotaur launch vehicle tipped with a conventional munition.

U.S. Strategic Command chief, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright–the White House’s pick for the next vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff–says he needs this capability to react to a variety of threats without having to rely on basing rights or nuclear weapons. The target set could include anything from activities deserving of a preemptive strike–such as an anti-satellite threat–or a reaction to real-time intelligence on terrorist elements.

And this makes it even worse:

The Navy notionally plans to dedicate two of 24 tubes in each of 14 Ohio-class submarines to the conventional Trident mission. The remaining tubes would continue to carry the nuclear-armed versions.

…

There is a sub launched ballistic missile headed toward you. You have nukes. Is it targeting you, or someone else? Is it conventional or nuclear?

You have 5 minutes to choose a response.

New Sensor Detects Submarines?

No Comments

I think that this technology is probably oversold, otherwise we would not see it in Aviation Week.

If it worked, it would be so classified, we wouldn’t even hear rumors of it.

New Sensor Detects Submarines(Subscription Required)
New Sensor Detects Submarines
Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/02/2007, page 13

Edited by Edward H. Phillips

Printed headline: Hide and Seek

Scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a sensor that measures the motion generated by sound waves under water. A series of the device could be configured in compact arrays and deployed by the U.S. Navy to detect enemy submarines. According to Francois Guillot, a research engineer at the George W. Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering in Atlanta, the sensor is capable of detecting small sounds despite the surrounding noise of the ocean, and it provides clear directional information. In addition, the sensor can be modified to measure water deformation, or shear, associated with a sound wave. The research is being supported by a grant from the Office of Naval Research.

…

Russians to Launch Nuclear Powered Carrier

No Comments

Aviation week is covering the new aircraft, but to me, the building of a carrier is more interesting.

MiG is beginning flight testing (subscription required)

Aviation Week & Space Technology
07/02/2007, page 18

MiG is beginning flight testing of the latest iteration of the MiG-29K carrier-borne derivative of the Fulcrum, which is destined for the Indian navy.

The two-seat variant, the MiG-29KUB, flew for the first time in January. Under a contract with India, signed in 2004, 12 single-seat and four two-seat aircraft were ordered as part of the $1.5-billion deal covering the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov. The single-seat MiG-29K uses the same forward fuselage section as the two-seat aircraft, including the canopy. The second cockpit, however, is replaced with an additional fuel tank.

Credit: ALEXEY KOMAROV

The MiG-29 could yet find its way into the Russian navy inventory, which only includes the Su-33 in the combat role. Commander-in-Chief Adm. Vladimir Masorin says its future carrier requirement is for a ship “with some 50,000 tons displacement. We assume the carrier will accommodate 30 aircraft, both fixed-wing and rotorcraft.” The new class of nuclear-powered ship would replace the Admiral Kuznetsov after 2015.

By comparison, the Charles de Gaulle displaces 40,600 tons, their future Carrier will displace about 65,000 tons, and the Nimitz class super carriers displace about 102,000 tons.

The Nimitz has a complement of about 75 aircraft.

I’m wondering if they will continue with the ski jump, or go with catapults.

Russia Tests 3M14 Bulava SS-N-30

No Comments

Note that the name Akula is the Russian name for the Typhoon class mammoth SSBN. What the West calls the Akula is called the Bars class in Russia.

She SS-N-30 is basically a cut down Topol.

3M14 Bulava SS-N-30

On 28 June 2007 Russia successfully tested the new Bulava (SS-NX-30) sea-based ballistic missile after several previous failures. Capt. Igor Dygalo told The Associated Press that the Bulava missile hit its target on the Pacific peninsula of Kamchatka, about 6,700 kilometers (4,200 miles) east of Moscow, after being launched in northern Russia’s White Sea from the submarine Dmitry Donskoi, a 941 Akula / TYPHOON class submarine outfited in 2005 as the SS-N-30 Bulava test platform.

The Bulava (SS-NX-30) is the submarine-launched version of Russia’s most advanced missile, the Topol-M (SS-27) solid fuel ICBM. The SS-NX-30 is a derivative of the SS-27, except for a slight decrease in range due to conversion of the design for submarine launch. The SS-27 has is 21.9 meters long, far too large to fit in a typical submarine. The largest previously deployed Russian SLBM was the R-39 / SS-N-20 STURGEON, which was 16 meters long. Russian sources report that the Bulava SS-N-30 ballistic missile can carry ten warheads to a range of 8,000km. Other sources suggest that the Bulava probably might have a range of 10,000 km, and is reportedly features a 550 kT yield nuclear warhead. Apparently up to six MIRVs can be placed at the cost of offloading warhead shielding and decoys.

…

MiG-35 Details Given

No Comments

My money is on India going with Russia, they already have a lot fo the support infrastructure there.

Also note that the Mig-35, Su-27 variants, Typhoon, Rafale, and Gripen are all offering AESA upgrades.

The USAF is billing as a great ace in the hole, and it seems not so tough to do.

Bangalore air show: MiG-35 makes debut at Aero India

RSK MiG chose Aero India to display the MiG-35 publicly for the first time. A land-based version of the Indian navy’s MiG-29KUB, the aircraft was first flown last month. The MiG-35 is being offered to meet the Indian air force’s requirement for 126 multirole fighters.

…

The MiG-35 is first Russian aircraft fitted with an active electronically scanned array radar. The Phazotron-NIIR Zhuk-MA was publicly revealed by removing the aircraft’s nosecone. The Zhuk-MA’s antenna consists of 160 modules, each with four receive-and-transmit modules. It is believed to offer a 160km (85nm) air target detection radius and 300km for surface ships. ….

The MiG-35 is powered by two RD-33MKBs that can be fitted with KliVT swivel-nozzles and a thrust vectoring control (TVC) system. …..

The Military’s Criminal Gang Problem

No Comments

This is what Iraq is doing to our military.

We are not just scraping the bottom of the barrel, we are training members of criminal gangs, and they will bring their skills back home.

Gangs of Iraq
Desperate to shore up its flagging ranks, the military is quietly enlisting thousands of active gang members and shipping them to Iraq. Will a brutal murder finally wake up the Pentagon?
By Seamus McGraw

e was groggy, thirsty, and in terrible pain. His bowels and kidneys felt like they were about to explode. Faint bruises, some the size of a soldier’s fist, others the size of a military-issue combat boot, were already forming on Sergeant Juwan Johnson’s skin. A trickle of blood oozed from the corner of his mouth.

It was almost a miracle he was able to stand, some of the soldiers who were with him that night would later recall. They were amazed he still had the blue bandanna clutched tightly in his fist. Things had gotten out of hand.

A ghost army of gangbangers presents a terrifying challenge for the military. It is “setting the stage for a disaster,” says one longtime military advisorOnly a few guys were supposed to be beating him—maybe three or four, definitely no more than six. They were men Johnson knew and trusted, soldiers he had fought with in Iraq. The beating was only supposed to go on for a minute or so. After all, they weren’t trying to kill him. They were trying to make him one of their own.

All he had to do was hold onto the blue rag and silently suffer through the slaps and kicks and punches. When it was over, he would become an official member of the Gangster Disciples, a man with connections all over the United States. Hell, all over the world.

But something had gone awry on that summer night at the Kaiserslautern Army Base in Germany. It seemed like everybody in that secluded pavilion, a grill house not far from the barracks, had taken turns pummeling the small young sergeant from Baltimore. In the frenzy, no one even knew for sure how long the assault had lasted.

..

Conformal radar arrays are now being prototyped

1 Comment

With an array this large, resolution could be very good, and it’s likely that it might have significant stealth detection capabilities.

The resolution of a radar is proportional to the size of the antenna, and the resolution attained here should be sufficient to pick up almost anything.

Conformal radar arrays are now being prototyped(Subscription Required)
Aviation Week & Space Technology
06/25/2007, page 51

David A. Fulghum
El Segundo, Calif.

Radars could be mounted on football-field-size plastic sheets

Printed headline: Beyond Big

Conformal radar arrays that a year ago were only concepts are now being prototyped. Large apertures are being designed as skin to hug the complex curves of aircraft wings and fuselages.

A massive structure under construction by Raytheon will form one side of a three-football-field-long airship. About six million elements will make up the 6,000-sq.-meter antenna, says Mark Hauhe, a senior fellow working on advanced radar concept demonstrators.


Third-generation AESA radars may be hundreds of yards long and use electrical components lithographed to a lightweight plastic-like material that is folded to form radiating elements.Credit: RAYTHEON CONCEPT

…..